Halt in toy train service between NJP and Darj

MRINALINI SHARMA. TT, Siliguri, June 16: The toy train service that runs the full stretch from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling and back has been suspended till the end of the monsoon.

Other trains which run shorter distances are allowed to ply, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) said.

Repeated landslides have posed danger to the trains in the hills, days after the DHR started full service after several years.

Uma Shankar Singh Yadav, the divisional railway manager of Katihar division of Northeast Frontier Railway, under which the DHR operates, said: "We are only suspending the two services which travel the entire stretch from NJP to Darjeeling and Darjeeling to NJP for some time for the sake of safety because heavy rainfalls are occurring in the hills and there is constant fall of boulders and debris from hillside at Paglajhora on the tracks and the road."

"It is the work of the state PWD to protect the hillsides so that boulders and debris do not fall from slopes. It will be a risk to allow the two trains to cross the Paglajhora stretch during the rainy season, unless the work of protecting the hillside is done by the state PWD. However, the two services will be regular after the rainy season," he said.

Paglajhora is 35km from Siliguri and on NH55.

A DHR source said the trains would not ply on the whole 80km stretch of the toy train tracks but would travel to Kurseong and Tindharia from Darjeeling and NJP, respectively.

The representatives of the state PWD today visited Paglajhora on NH55 to assess the damage caused by landslides.

Ajay Singh, the executive engineer of NH division IX of the state PWD, said: "We are in the process of preparing the final detailed project reports for Paglajhora and Tindharia. At Paglajhora, we want to carry out work to protect the hillside to stop boulders and debris from falling on the highway and also to improve the road. At Tindharia, we are preparing the DPR for restoration of the highway which sank in the landslide in September 2011."